This invention relates to an apparatus which charges receptacles with items of like dimensions and configuration and which has at least one counting and charging unit comprising a plurality of coaxial toothed counting wheels. The latter receive the items in the tooth gaps and advance the items to a funnel from which they fall into the receptacle.
An apparatus of the above-outlined type is known and is disclosed, for example, in Swiss Pat. No. 382,641. The known arrangements are adapted to handle items which in all the dimensional directions are approximately of the same size, while they may be of asymmetrical shape. These known apparatuses, however, are not adapted to charge narrow and tall receptacles with small plate-like items of rectangular cross section because the items fall at random into the receptacle and there require a substantial space. This is so because the items are not properly aligned in the receptacle and thus there are significant dead spaces between the items. It is another disadvantage of the known arrangements that the items may jam against one another in the funnel and thus clog the same.